Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: scripted iptables-restore
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 11:25:11
Message-Id: 52611955.1000407@gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: scripted iptables-restore by Tanstaafl
1 On 18/10/2013 12:23, Tanstaafl wrote:
2 > On 2013-10-17 10:30 PM, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org> wrote:
3 >> I apologize. That is arguably a two factor system. When you said
4 >> "ssh key and password", I "jumped to delusions", assuming that it was a
5 >> standard ssh connection with the option of either key or password.
6 >
7 > Side question...
8 >
9 > So, wouldn't the simplest two-factor authentication be an SSH key that
10 > required a password?
11 >
12
13
14 No, there is no way to verify that a user has enabled a passphrase on an
15 ssh key.
16
17 Passphrases are designed to be used by the user to protect the user's
18 private key and cannot be controlled by the listening sshd.
19
20 The reason this is "two factor" is that hop 1 is a Unix host and like
21 all good sysadmins I enable key auth only. The next hop is the Cisco
22 routers and believe it or not, most of them are telnet only.
23
24 Yes, you heard right: telnet. Recent Cisco firmware supports ssh but a)
25 it kills the poor PowerPC cpu with 10 concurrent connections and b)
26 costs a lot of license money. Ingenious measures are in place to
27 mitigate the risk of telnet, it is certainly nothing like running
28 telnetd over the open internet.
29
30 --
31 Alan McKinnon
32 alan.mckinnon@×××××.com

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: scripted iptables-restore Tanstaafl <tanstaafl@×××××××××××.org>